Obama in China, China in Africa

President Obama has taken his populist style to China with
a town hall meeting with students in Shanghai that was also streamed on the
Internet. Meanwhile, journalists and others in China chafe against restrictions
that prevent their free speech and unfettered use of the Internet.

While the President is to be hailed for “taking it to the
people” in China, the more substantive aspects of his visit will need to address
the economic tension between the United States and China. China would have us
participate in trade agreements that limit tariffs on Chinese goods, but the
Obama Administration, its hands full with domestic economic issues, has not yet
tackled issues of trade policy. Further, the administration can count on
opposition from protectionists and free trade opponents in Congress.It is difficult to deny China’s growing influence
on the world stage. It is the third-largest trading nation, emits the most
carbon gasses (to the detriment of the rest of the world), and actually has the
most cell phone subscribers in the world.

The growing middle class and increasing prosperity have
been amazing, but there is still enormous poverty in China, and human rights is
much further down on its government’s list of priorities than economic growth.

Even as President Barack Obama travels to China for an
official state visit, Chinese economic leaders are just returning from Egypt,
where a two-day forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held. China has agreed to
increase aid to Africa, reduce or cancel debts on African countries, and make increased
investments in the African economy.Is
this a good or bad thing?

Some African leaders say they pay too high a price for the
$10 billion in cheap loans they will get because of this new initiative.They say the pattern of trade is that African
raw materials go to China and cheap Chinese finished goods flood Africa.In addition, some Chinese investment comes at
a high price – last year China invested $9 billion in Congolese infrastructure,
and got control of mining deposits in return. Investments in oil and gas fields
isn’t free – China adds control of some of Nigeria’s, Cameroon’s and Gabon’s
oil reserve in exchange for their petrochemical companies’ significant
investment.In fairness to China, its
interest in Africa is not new, but dates back more than five decades. It is
only now, as the Chinese economy expands so rapidly, that they have fully
engaged in the African continent.Bilateral
trade between the two countries was $107 billion in 2008. Trade has risen by
more than 30 percent in the past eight years. African imports are free from
tariffs in China.

Still, as China expands its reach in the African
continent, some in the US are alarmed about its meaning in both economic and
strategic terms. Can African countries ever truly be independent if they have no
economic independence? If foreign powers own critical natural resources, how does
it affect African countries’ ability to grow? Is the United States being
shortsighted in limiting our own involvement in African economics? We’ve
attempted to address the underdevelopment of the African continent with AGOA
(the African Growth and Opportunity Act), but many describe that legislation as
good but insufficient.We shouldn’t
necessarily compete with China for influence in Africa, but it would be to our
strategic detriment if China were the dominant foreign power on African soil.

The issue of China’s African involvement is not likely to
come up in conversations with president Obama this week, nor should it,
necessarily. But President Obama may be too magnanimous when he says, “the
notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined”. There are economic issues
that must be resolved, and in these matters there are often clear winners and losers.
Despite the reality of globalization, no nation can afford fully free trade
when it imperils its own workers from finding and keeping employment. China’s
failure to revalue the yuan, pegged to a weaker dollar, undermines US economic
viability. And as China’s influence grows, in Africa and elsewhere, what does
that mean for the influence of the United States?

Julianne Malveaux is
president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.

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